MetalBite Review by Luka on 5/31/2001
Mighty black metal warriors from Telemark, Norway make their second full-length an absolute masterpiece, an album that reached a "wider audience" in the metal world and is hailed as a sure black metal classic, if not the best black metal album ever.

So what makes it so great, anyway? At first, the unwary listener might be repelled after being bombarded by the drum blasts and the constant ‘wall of sound’ type recording. Listening to this too loud on earphones -will- result in pain, trust me... Plus the music is so distorted and complicated that at first it’s impossible to figure any of it out, and don’t even attempt to decipher the words being sung, they’re so buried under the distortion that you can barely hear there’s singing at all.
But listen carefully, dig deep into the fast, furious riffs, make sense of the distorted guitar riffs and you’ll find a whole realm of godly music. You discover so much complexity and diversity within the songs when you focus on the things going on behind the main sounds. The evolving, dark melodies, the majestic synths and Ihsahn’s hissing vocals that, when all combined together, sound like a furious hailstorm.

Anthems is an album that immerses unbelievable complexity and creativity within black metal, but stays true to the genre with the purely distorted and furious black metal production. The result is a musical masterpiece that has yet to be matched. The entire album is simply amazing, tracks 2, 3, 4, and 7 are even better! Takes time to get into but once you’re in you won’t leave!